


Gunpoint

by Merkwerkee



Series: Being Bruno Hamilton [7]
Category: Masters of the Metaverse
Genre: Whumptober 2019, during his time in the Vietnam War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22854982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merkwerkee/pseuds/Merkwerkee
Summary: Bruno has a terrible, horrible, no-good very-bad day...and then Amos shows up to put a cherry on top
Series: Being Bruno Hamilton [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643020





	Gunpoint

Bruno was having what might politely be called a bad day.

But, since there was no-one around worth being polite to, he was having an absolute _shit_ day. A day where the high point was the coffee machine joining the goddamn choir invisible because at least that meant they’d get a new one or the spooks would revolt en masse.

It was the kind of day that started with all off-duty enlisted men getting rousted at o-dark-thirty to attend the two-hour monologue of a brigadier with a bee in his bonnet and more stars than sense. Bruno and his team had only gotten back to their respective bunks a few hours before the shitshow started, and he had basically slept while standing up through most of it. It was only near the end, when the general started handing down orders that Bruno really woke up.

Apparently, whatever had gotten the general going had something to do with the state of the place, because Bruno found himself in possession of a squad of damned FNGs with mops, buckets, and bad attitudes. The base was full of spooks and there was no way in hell they could clean all of that off, but the general sure as hell wasn’t going to listen to a sergeant on the matter - for all Bruno wasn’t _technically_ under his command.

But orders were orders, and Bruno’s job was to implement them, so he went at it with a will.

His general mood deteriorated rapidly in the face of the general truculence displayed by his pro-tem squad, but also by another feeling. A tiny, niggling feeling that crawled up and down his spine in a too familiar fashion. Someone was watching him, specifically; someone good enough that couldn’t catch more than a glimpse here and there.

It made no sense. He was in the middle of a damned army base, doing one of the most scut jobs he’d ever been ordered to do with a squad of FNGs, and someone was watching him. He’d thought it was a new spook, at first, but it didn’t fit; spooks liked you to know when they were watching, and this guy was staying out of sight. It could be an enemy infiltrator, but Bruno wasn’t the brains of the operation for all Jaxun had hand-picked him for the so-called “Alpha Squad” so there was no way he was a higher-value target than half the officers on base.

Bruno couldn’t out his finger on it, and as the surveillance continued into the early evening hours he’d finally had enough. Ordering the FNGs back to barracks, he approached the corner of a nearby garage where he’d last seen movement and loosened his Ka-Bar as he went. He wasn’t stupid, for all he was tired of this game, and came around the corner hard with his knife out and ready to be greeted by……

Nothing.

Keeping his knife out, he began a slow seep of the alley between the two buildings when a very familiar click from next to his ear made him freeze. “So this is Sergeant Hammer. I gotta say, I’m kind of disappointed. I thought you were better than taking a corner all by your lonesome when you know someone is waiting on the other side.” The voice was light, teasing, and totally unfamiliar, but the gun didn’t waver an inch and it was just far enough back that Bruno couldn’t see the trigger.

Bruno grunted. “That’s because,” he said, and twisted to plant a hard elbow into the man behind him’s gut. The guy wheezed but didn’t drop the gun - not bad, guy clearly knew what was important - and Bruno turned to follow up the elbow with a knee. The guy dropped, and Bruno was on him in an instant, laying him out on his front while simultaneously twisting the gun out of his hand and pointing it at the back of his head.

“Who sent you?” He growled, keeping his finger on the guard of a weapon he could clearly see had the safety engaged.

“Jebediah Lexington.”

The response, somewhat muffled by the fact the guy’s face was pressed into the dirt, wasn’t surprising and Bruno snorted before taking his knee out of the guy’s back and putting his knife away. The guy coughed a bit while standing and brushed himself off a bit before he caught Bruno’s distinctly Not Amused look and grinned sheepishly. “Lexington might’ve talked you up a bit while he was giving me this assignment. He said you didn’t respect anyone who couldn’t get the drop on you, and that you were the backbone of the operation; when’d you notice me?”

Bruno simply gave him a look that made the Sahara look like a tropical paradise and didn’t answer his question. “Jaxun told us we were getting a new guy. You Tongs?”

The other man nodded. “Corporal Amos Graves, callsign Tongs.”

Bruno nodded, and looked steadily at the younger man. “Did Lexington assign your handle?” The younger man shrugged.

“Could be worse. I guess he thinks he’s being clever,” Graves noted, and Bruno shrugged in return.

“Don’t try that stupid shit on anyone else. Tunstall’d shoot you before asking questions, and Weber can get……creative. I’m the nice one. That being said,” he deadpanned before lashing out with one huge fist.

Graves went down in a heap, blood beginning to trickle from a new split in his lips.

_“Don’t point a gun at me.”_


End file.
